Tag Archives: Facebook

#JumpForDystonia is sweeping across cyberspace and I couldn’t be more excited. This inspirational awareness campaign launched by Dystonia Europe reminds us to live our lives joyfully and offers us hope that our seemingly elusive dream of freedom of movement is but a hop, skip and a jump away!

When was the last time you embraced a leap of faith? How often have you jumped for joy, jumped into the conversation, jumped to a conclusion…or jumped off that proverbial cliff? How about taking a flying leap and jumping for Dystonia?

There’s no better way to begin than a jump-start! Join our #JumpForDystonia Flash Mob this week (July 13-19) to ignite a wildfire of awareness across social media. Simply share a pic or video showcasing your best – or most creative – jump accompanied by the hashtag #JumpForDystonia. Pole vaults, long jumps, ski jumps and jump shots are all welcome. Enlist friends family and work colleagues. Let’s get the whole world jumping for Dystonia!

You’re surely aware of Dystonia’s White House Petition – which is hanging around thru Oct. 9 – but I feel compelled to introduce a group of individuals who deserve a round of applause and laud a community that made more than a little movement to advance our cause.

Mike Delise is an advocate for patient Jason Dunn who’d carry the entire Dystonia community on his back if he could. Mike conceived the petition last Spring and refused to be deterred when it didn’t take off, planning a second effort for September. Mike has gone the extra mile for Dystonia, earning himself permanent membership in our family.

Then there’s Treacy Henry, a determined Dystonia patient who’s the juice behind dystoniaaware.org and the Make September Dystonia Awareness Month Facebook and Twitter communities. She’s devoted heart & soul to gaining White House recognition of Awareness Month and stands an amazing example of activism in action. Treacy’s daily communications have been the fuel keeping our community focused on our goal.

Kudos go to Angela Winnick for conceiving the recent Twitter Flash Mobs prompting us to head to Twitter to raise a united voice promoting #DystoniaAwareness. In less than a week, these Flash Mobs catapulted #DystoniaAwareness to trend #1 on Twitter, not bad for a rare and little known neurological disorder!

I couldn’t be more proud of our community…or more appreciative of the friends who’ve come forward to support us. I invite everyone to join tonight’s Flash Mob at 7pm ET. Visit our Facebook Event for a list of Tweets targeting news media and celebrities. Here’s one anyone can use: “Challenge you to a RT to support #DystoniaAwareness! www.dystoniaaware.org”

This past week, a group of men and women in a Facebook Group called Neuronauts – led by a dynamo named Lori Raines – determined to make a dent in the public consciousness via CNN iReports, the hope to spawn a bit of mainstream news. Indeed, injecting our “Dystonia Awareness” stories into a stream of iReports waiting to be discovered by other iReporters, iReaders and yes, CNN editors, secures its own victory.

Ostensibly, I joined this “Movement” to speak about my “movement.” Then I began to ponder the deeper meaning of our task. My first thought was how my story isn’t simply about me or even Dystonia. It’s about omnipresent realities that touch people everywhere: feeling different, struggling, embracing hope, promoting understanding, believing in an energy beyond ourselves. My greatest compliment is when people see glimmers of their stories in mine. Maybe it’s a physical experience, moment of humor or obstacle overcome. If my blog preaches anything, it’s how we’re all part of one encompassing narrative. Our individual plot lines enrich the world with variety. Our common thoughts and emotions keep us interconnected. My goal of explaining Dystonia is readily achievable by appealing to ideas that reside within all of us and the exercise of imagination. Our iReports stand as a collective effort to introduce our little-known cause and help you to learn just one part of who we are. For me, the goal is human empathy as much as publicity.

We all make movements and (hopefully) we also join Movements. The past year marked my introduction to the dynamic force of Health Activism. I’ve come to see that activists are nothing less than human beings realizing our potential to care about one another and the world we inhabit. Start by “activating” your mind. Direct your thoughts beyond yourself, engage in dialog with others, set forth to grow as a person and in the process you’re bound to inspire others. I started my blog out of a compulsion to share truths I’d stuffed deep inside for way too long. I activated my mind to think in new ways and planted seeds in my garden that flourished.

I invite you to make that all-important first step. Undertake an intention to advance a cause or truth you find significant. Perhaps it’s Dystonia. Maybe an entirely different enterprise “moves” you. Start a Movement, join a Movement but be sure to MOVE in a meaningful direction!

You can endorse our effort by selecting “This belongs on CNN” at the end of each article. Here’s my contribution: Pamela’s CNN iReport. This is a joint effort: Dystonia may be the engine but you’re the steam propelling us forward!

Kudos to Lori Raines, who conceived this event in the first place and encouraged us to get going!

Dystonia Awareness Week may have passed but make no mistake, the flame burns on. I’m proud to participate in Dystonia BloggerMania, the continuing celebration of Dystonia activism rocking the World Wide Web. Think of us bloggers as “reality journalists” – patients, parents and children determined to shake up cyberspace by flinging out our stories for all the world to learn. No scripts in this mass exercise of reality writing, just a flow of words coming straight from the heart.

Having spent the better part of a year revealing my deepest, darkest secrets, I undertake the utmost admiration for the raw honesty displayed by my blogging buddies as they share their innermost thoughts and personal struggles. While publishing our “diaries” can be a hairpin curve, we gain a tremendous sigh of relief from facing our demons and laying everything on the line. Take one step outside your comfort zone and the other foot will follow. Before you know it, you’re off on a brisk run.

Come join us. Blog for yourself, for your community, to enlighten the ignorant. Tackling the blogosphere is seizing a ripe moment to make a splash in the pool and practice your swimming strokes. Blogging entails publicizing a kaleidoscope of challenges constituting a difficult day in the hope of connecting with those in need of hearing us. We’re working through the most personal of issues in a public form of therapy as part of a never-ending journey to find invisible upsides amid the all too visible downsides of life. Blogging enables us to combat narrow-mindedness by offering up our intimate details as examples of the wealth of human diversity. We abandon great big chunks of our privacy for the greater good of educating friends and strangers about the insidious criminalities of our disorders. Our collective impact is realized post by post, read by read.

Highlights from the Bronx Zoo Walk on Oct. 4, 2015

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Email: ps@dystoniamuse.com

What seems like a lifelong experience with Dystonia began with a "mis-step" when I was 8-1/2. Dystonia may have staged a coup over certain body parts but my heart and soul remain firmly my own. I'm a friend, daughter, sister, creative mind, honorary auntie, fan of the quantum mechanical, hopefully one-day spouse, now also health activist.